FOR THE GLORY OF GOD
How monotheism led to reformations, science, witch-hunts and the end of slavery
By Rodney Stark
Princeton University Press. 504 pages
ISBN 0 691 11950 3
Available from Amazon
Influential atheists such as Richard Dawkins like to indict belief in God as the ‘root of all evil’. Stark, an American Professor of Sociology, has written a far more thoughtful, evidence-based, intellectually challenging, yet extremely readable analysis of the impact of the belief that there is one God.
He takes four major historical episodes and uses sociological methods to trace the influence and practical outworking of monotheistic belief. While both Judaism and Islam receive some consideration, most of the book is really about the effects of Christianity on human society. His underlying argument is that social science has gone badly astray by assuming that theological beliefs are irrelevant, or can be reduced to mere ritual. Ideas matter.
